Westlake's Latrell Martin pulls two South Beauregard defenders along with him for a big gain Thursday night. (Rick Hickman / Special to the American Press).

Barbe, Sam Houston, Sulphur secure big victories

Last Modified: Sunday, October 07, 2012 6:30 PM

Week 6 of the high school football season began Thursday night with four games involving teams from the Lake Area.

All four games were district matches and each one ended in a blowout. Westlake opened District 4-3A play by crushing South Beauregard 28-7, Welsh remained perfect in 4-2A action with a 50-26 thumping of East Beauregard, Oakdale earned its first win of the year after routing Pine Prairie 34-0 and Elton blanked Merryville 26-0 in both team's league opener.

The action ratcheted up Friday with a slew of marquee games, most of which were played in Southwest Louisiana.

The biggest game was at Barbe with the Bucs beating Acadiana 31-28 with a long field goal with 9 seconds to go in the District 3-5A showdown. Sam Houston and Sulphur both go wins on the road, Washington-Marion edged St. Louis, DeRidder topped LaGrange and Notre Dame crushed host Jennings.

The American Press sent reporters and photographers to many of the area's top games. Check back later for scoring updates and highlights from each game. Pick up a copy of Saturday's American Press for complete stories and photos. Check our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/americanpress for a photo gallery of Friday's action. To purchase photos taken by American Press photographers, click here.

Friday's Games

Barbe 31, Acadiana 28

Barbe survived against a big-time opponent again, beating Acadiana on Jamie McGee's 25-yard field goal as time expired.

The win keeps the Bucs (6-1, 2-0) atop the District 3-5A standings along with Carencro, a 40-14 winner over Comeaux. Barbe visits Carencro next week.

Barbe drove 64 yards in the final four minutes to set up McGee’s game-winner. McGee split the uprights from the left hashmark to give the Bucs a crucial win.

McGee had missed from 45 yards in the third quarter, his first miss of the season, when a high snap forced him to take a stutter step. There was no doubt about the winner.

“It felt great, it is a memory I will have for the rest of my life,” said McGee.

Sam Houston 38, Loyola Prep 31

SHREVEPORT — Cliff Reed ran for 157 yards and three touchdowns for Sam Houston, but it was Simon Farquhar that put the game away in the fourth quarter.

After tacking on a PAT to Cliff Reed’s 8-yard touchdown run, Farquhar kicked a 25-yard field goal. That was followed by a 56-yard Reed led a Sam Houston rushing attack that rolled up 387 yards, including big chunks in the fourth quarter. Jacob Stracener added another 98 yards and a touchdown.

Loyola (3-3) was led by a 246-yard passing performance from Norton.

FINAL: Sulphur 47, Lafayette 35

Game recap coming soon.

Bolton 35, Leesville 31

LEESVILLE — JoJo Wordsworth ran for 118 yards and two touchdowns to lead Bolton (2-4).

Wordsworth scored on 43- and 48-yard runs and caught touchdown passes of 51 and 5 yards.

Leesville (0-6) was led by Jatorrey Smith, who ran for 151 yards and one touchdown.

Washington-Marion 14, St. Louis 6

Washington-Marion’s No. 1 offense and defense work against each other every day on goal-line situations.

It paid off on both sides of the ball in the final two minutes as the Charging Indians came through on a pair of fourth downs in the shadow of the goal line to knock off St. Louis in the District 4-4A opener for both teams.

Two plays ultimately made the difference in a toe-to-toe battle of crosstown rivals.

Washington-Marion took a 14-6 lead with 1:55 remaining when LSU commit Melvin Jones bulldogged for an 8-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-3. The Saints appeared to have Jones dead to rights near the line of scrimmage, but he broke through for a first down, then broke through tackles yet again to get into the end zone.

DeRidder 21, LaGrange 20

Ah, the difference a few fingertips make.

To the naked eye, all that separated defeat from victory for LaGrange was a few fingertips.

To head coach Jules Sullen it was much more than that. For him, it was more about what was inside the players than some exterminates.

For the record, DeRidder opened district play with a 21-20 win over LaGrange Friday night.

Senior defensive back Jarrett Floyd tipped away a two-point conversion try by the Gators in the corner of the end zone with just over three minutes left to preserve the victory.

However, Sullen wasn’t ready to put it all on the one big play, which started when the snap from center sailed over the head of quarterback Quinton Barry, who was in the shotgun. Barry picked up the ball and almost made a miracle play but for Floyd’s fingers.

“What’s disappointing is we didn’t take DeRidder seriously,” said Sullen. “Take nothing away from DeRidder, they played hard and deserved to win, but we didn’t come to play. We did not take this game seriously.”

Asked why he pointed to his team and said “You have to ask them. Maybe we didn’t think we had to since we were coming off a big win last week.

“We sure learned differently.”

Iowa 14, Crowley 6

CROWLEY — Iowa stayed undefeated with a close win over the Crowley Gents in both teams’ District 4-3A opener.

Austin Theriot ran for 91 yards and a touchdown and D’Juan Rigmaiden ran for 85 yards and a touchdown as Iowa improved to 6-0 (1-0).

Notre Dame 23, Jennings 0

JENNINGS — The fourth-ranked Notre Dame Pioneers stood strong all night and didn’t let the No. 9 Jennings Bulldogs get rolling in the District 4-3A opener for both teams.

The Pioneers defense limited to the Bulldogs to a season-low 97 yards of offense.

“It is every year that they do an excellent job on defense,” said Jennings coach Rusty Phelps. “We wanted to run the football and they stopped the run.”

Notre Dame’s Clint Faul returned the opening kick 65 yards. Seven plays later Austin Thibodeaux scored on a 7-yard run to give Notre Dame (4-1, 1-0) an 7-0 lead. The second touchdown came after Notre Dame recovered a fumble at the Bulldogs 38-yard line. Five plays later Brad Stoma scored on a 1-yard run to give Notre Dame a 14-0 lead with 2:34 to play in the first quarter.

The Bulldogs (4-2, 0-1) gained four first downs in the first half with two coming by penalties. The Pioneers increased their lead to 16-0 when a bad snap went over the Jaylon Boutte’s attempt to punt and he was downed in the end zone for a safety.

Lake Arthur 41, DeQuincy 12

DEQINCY — DeQuincy was looking to build on early District 4-2A success, but Trey Hargrove and his Lake Arthur teammates would have none of that.

Hargrove lead a rushing attack that clawed away at DeQuincy to the tune of 337 yards as Lake Arthur won on the road.

The win improved Lake Arthur to 5-1 overall and 2-1 in district.

“You have to take the season one game at a time, you can’t live off the momentum from last week and our guys are experienced enough to know that,” said Lake Arthur head coach Chad Lavergne.

It was Hargrove who was on center stage, scoring five times and finishing with 207 yards on 25 carries.

Cameron Durio, Jordy Pitre and Aaron Sandifer grabbed interceptions for Oberlin (3-3, 1-0), which also scored on a safety on the third quarter.

South Cameron (1-5, 0-1), which has lost 11 straight games, had only 51 total yards of offense.

Thursday's Games

Westlake 28, South Beauregard 7

LONGVILLE — Tim Hamilton threw for two scores and ran for a third as Westlake raced to an early lead in the District 4-3A opener for both teams.

Hamilton finished 15 of 27 for 223 yards and the two scores. He also was picked off twice.

The Rams quarterback hit Jacory Washington with a 19-yard scoring pass in the opening quarter, and later found Handon Ettiene with a 26-yarder in the second quarter as Westlake (4-1) took control 21-7 at the half.

South Beauregard (2-4, 0-1) scored on Matt Trahan’s 13-yard run before halftime.

Welsh 50, East Beauregard 26

WELSH — The Welsh Greyhounds remained unbeaten in District 4-2A play with a dominant first half.

The Greyhounds (5-1, 3-0) scored 44 unanswered points in the first half. William Heinen scored on runs of 2 and 4 yards in the half, and blocked a punt that went through the end zone for a safety. Destin Reed scored a pair of touchdowns on a 5-yard run and 60-yard kickoff return.

Josh Fletcher threw for 95 yards and scored on a 2-yard run to lead East Beauregard (0-6, 0-3). Logan Fox and Triston Beebe also scored for the Trojans.

Oakdale 34, Pine Prairie 0

PINE PRAIRIE — Oakdale picked the right time to earn its first victory, opening District 5-2A play with the easy road win.

Curley Blount turned in the game’s biggest play when he returned a punt 35 yards for a score.

The rest of the night belonged to the Oakdale (1-5, 1-0) defense. The loss dropped Pine Prairie to (1-4, 0-1).

Elton 26, Merryville 0

MERRYVILLE — Elton used a well-balanced attack and stifling defense for the shutout in a District 5-1A opener.

The Indians (5-1, 1-0) ran for 208 yards and passed for 169. Micah Lavan led the way with 167 rushing yards and three touchdowns on 20 carries.

Carson Ortego found Scott Ross on a 13-yard pass for Elton’s other score.